Midpoint Review
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Did the Governance Team recommend a Midpoint Review in your team’s Collaboration Cycle Request GitHub ticket? Follow these guidelines to get started.
Don’t have a GitHub ticket yet? You may need to start the Collab Cycle with a Kickoff.
The Midpoint Review is a recommended touchpoint—not a requirement. It helps your team design a solution that meets VA.gov Experience Standards, and lowers the potential for launch-blocking issues at the final Staging Review.
Watch this video for a quick, high-level overview of the Midpoint Review meeting. For complete details, read the article below.
What's the purpose of Midpoint Review?
The goal of the Midpoint Review touchpoint is to ensure your product aligns with VA.gov standards as you finalize your design. This touchpoint should be scheduled when a team has a prototype or mockup ready to put in front of users for research.
Preparing for the Midpoint Review
Format: Asynchronous or synchronous
You may schedule a Midpoint Review in either of these formats:
Synchronous: Live, 30-minute Zoom meeting with Governance team, or
Asynchronous: Review is scheduled, but no meeting is held. Governance team members review your research and design artifacts on their own, and append their feedback to your request ticket.
We recommend a synchronous meeting if this is the first time you’re introducing Platform to your product, or if there have been significant changes since your Design Intent.
Note: If you choose an asynchronous review and the Governance team decides your product requires a more in-depth consultation, we may change the review format to synchronous. If that happens, we will let you know ahead of time.
When should the Midpoint Review be scheduled?
Schedule this touchpoint when:
You have a high-fidelity design or prototype
You are preparing to do user research
Synchronous and asynchronous reviews are scheduled using the same process. Follow the instructions in your Collaboration Cycle ticket to schedule.
The Governance Team will need at least 2 business days to review your materials. Ensure you provide enough lead time, otherwise the meeting may need to be rescheduled.
What artifacts will be needed?
Artifacts are anything that will help the Governance Team and OCTO-DE understand your product, e.g. wireframes, user flows, etc.
The following artifacts should be ready and linked in the VFS team’s Collaboration Cycle Request GitHub ticket at least 2 business days before the scheduled meeting.
Required artifacts
Design prototype or high-fidelity mockup. If you don’t yet have a design, consider scheduling a Design Intent instead.
You must provide a version of your prototype or mockup sized for mobile devices.
Versions for larger devices (eg. desktop) are encouraged.
Up to date user flow. A user flow doesn’t need to be high-fidelity; a simple flowchart of arrows and shapes is acceptable. If there have been big changes since Design Intent, ensure your flow is up to date. If your team skipped a Design Intent, we will ask you to discuss your user flow at your Midpoint Review.
For help with user flows, reach out to the CAIA IA team through the
#sitewide-content-accessibility-iachannel on Slack.
If working with CAIA, link to CAIA intake ticket. The Governance Team needs this information to understand whether and how you’ve been getting assistance from the Sitewide Content, Accessibility and Information Architecture team.
Not required, but nice to have artifacts
Accessibility annotations included as part of your design
Research plan
Links to specific CAIA artifacts:
IA spec
Content source of truth
Any other artifacts you have so far
How to schedule a Midpoint Review
Follow the steps in your team’s Collaboration Cycle Request GitHub ticket.
Schedule: Use the Calendly link in the Before Meeting > VFS Actions section to select a date for the touchpoint meeting. The Governance Team will reach out within a business day via Slack to confirm that your touchpoint has been scheduled.
Add artifacts: Go to the Before meeting > Midpoint Review artifacts checklist and make sure the requested artifacts are linked.
Please request your Midpoint Review meeting and provide artifacts at least 2 business days ahead of time so the Governance Team can review your artifacts.
Who should schedule the Midpoint Review?
No one specific role on the VFS team is required to schedule the Midpoint Review. However, whoever schedules the Midpoint Review in Calendly will be responsible for inviting the rest of their team to the scheduled Midpoint Review meeting.
Who should attend the Midpoint Review?
The VFS team’s designer(s) and product manager should attend the Midpoint Review. You’re also encouraged to invite relevant members of your team, such as content, IA, accessibility, QA specialists, and VA stakeholders who will be working on or advising the product.
The Governance team will ensure that the relevant Platform and OCTO-DE participants are invited.
What happens during the Midpoint Review?
Meeting format
30-minute synchronous Zoom meeting
Hosted by the Governance Team
Recorded for later reference
Agenda
Midpoint Review meetings often follow this format:
The Governance Team welcomes everyone to the call.
Your team has 5 minutes to provide an update on what’s changed since Design Intent. If your team did not have a Design Intent, you’ll have 10 minutes to introduce your initiative. We recommend using this time to:
Discuss the problem space you are trying to solve for, including any constraints you’re facing.
Present your artifacts and ask for specific areas where you’d like feedback.
The Governance Team and OCTO-DE practice area leads will ask questions and provide feedback. They'll also provide you with written feedback through Github after the meeting.
What sort of feedback can teams expect?
After you present your artifacts, OCTO-DE and the Governance Team will ask questions and provide feedback. They may:
Recommend applicable Design System components and/or patterns
Share relevant insights or flows from other VA.gov work
Recommend changes to the user flow or page structure to meet Accessibility and IA standards.
Make suggestions for your research plan.
Remember, this is more of a discussion than a formal presentation. If you have questions you want answered or have questions about the feedback, ask!
After the Midpoint Review meeting
After the meeting, the Governance Team will add the link to the recording of the meeting to the Collaboration Cycle Request GitHub ticket.
Governance team design, accessibility, content, and IA reviewers will document their feedback with GitHub tickets following the Must, Should, and Consider Framework. Feedback tickets will be linked to the Collaboration Cycle Request GitHub ticket and can be found through the associated Milestone. Feedback tickets will be available no later than the end of the next business day following the meeting.
Once the Feedback is provided, you can update your plan & design to conform to relevant Platform standards. You can then move on to the next design touchpoint: the Staging Review.
Help and feedback
Get help from the Platform Support Team in Slack.
Submit a feature idea to the Platform.